Olympic Ratings Up 93%

Afternoon Edition

February 12, 2026

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Five days into the Winter Olympics, NBC is already seeing a 93% viewership surge compared to the 2022 Winter Games, which also helps offset its Super Bowl LX dip.

Plus, previously unreported emails reveal Orioles owner David Rubenstein met with Jeffrey Epstein in a Front Office Sports exclusive.

—Eric Fisher, Griffin Senyek, and Dennis Young

NBC’s Winter Olympics TV Viewership Up 93% Through 5 Days

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NBC Sports didn’t get the viewership bump it was hoping for from Super Bowl LX, but already is all but guaranteed a significant audience increase from the 2026 Winter Olympics.

After five days of competition from Italy, NBC said that its U.S. coverage is averaging 26.5 million viewers across the broadcast network, the Peacock streaming service, other NBCUniversal digital platforms, and Versant’s CNBC and USA Network. That’s a 93% increase from the comparable period in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and represents the most-watched Winter Games at this point since the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia.

Sunday night’s primetime coverage averaged 42 million viewers, also marking the most-watched individual Winter Games broadcast in 12 years.

Additionally, Peacock has already generated 5.3 billion minutes of Winter Olympics consumption, 36% higher than the 2022 Winter Olympics in full and more than twice that of all of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

The robust audience numbers coming out of the Olympics counter a 2% decline in Super Bowl LX viewership, and help advance what has already been a major corporate priority for NBC Sports and corporate parent Comcast.

Viewership Factors

There are three primary forces that help explain the historic lift in Olympic viewership that is now unfolding.

The first is the time zone difference. Milan is six hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast, and nine hours ahead of the U.S. West Coast. That more than halves the spread from the 2022 and 2018 Winter Olympics, which were 13 hours and 14 hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast, respectively, and made it much more difficult for American viewers to watch live competition.

The second key factor is that NBC has solidified its overall Olympics strategy that emphasizes live coverage of every sport across numerous linear and streaming platforms throughout each day, culminating in a well-produced, storytelling-driven nightly program in primetime. That same approach was deployed for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, driving an 82% viewership increase.

The third element is the arrival of Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement process, which brings in millions of additional data points from set-top boxes and smart TVs and provides a fuller view of the viewership landscape.

Meanwhile, NBC executives lauded a series of technological enhancements in the coverage, including those from drone cameras, that have provided a new level of immersiveness.

“That game-changing technology is really combined with unprecedented access that we’ve gained to the American athletes, and it’s given us such rich storytelling moments,” said NBC Olympics executive producer and president of programming Molly Solomon. “We’ve captured scenes that have never been seen before in the Olympics.”

More bullish viewership results are expected as key draws such as men’s ice hockey and several parts of the figure skating competition enter the heart of their schedules in the coming days. The U.S. team is off to a strong start in the medal count, and as of Thursday morning, was tied for third in golds with four and tied for second in overall medals with 13.

Comcast has also burnished its Olympics presentation to its own cable customers, adding several features, including a customizable multiview and personalized highlights—elements designed in part to help stem the decline in subscribers.

More on the Olympics

A Ukrainian skeleton racer was disqualified from the Olympics after refusing to remove a helmet honoring athletes killed in Russia’s invasion. Read the story.
Several Olympic figure skaters have had to change their music—or scramble to fix licensing issues—after running into copyright trouble. Read the story.
LA28 backed Casey Wasserman after reviewing his Epstein ties, even as athletes and artists walked away. Read the story.
President Donald Trump called Olympic skier Hunter Hess “a real loser” after the athlete said he had mixed emotions about representing the U.S. Read the story.
While the Super Bowl largely sidestepped politics, the Winter Olympics have become the real flash point for culture-war clashes. Read Michael McCarthy’s column.

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EXCLUSIVE

Orioles Owner Met With Jeffrey Epstein

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Orioles owner and Carlyle Group chair David Rubenstein met with Jeffrey Epstein in November 2012, four years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor and registered as a sex offender.

Previously unreported emails between Epstein and Rubenstein show that the pair met at least once and planned to meet another time. The emails appear in millions of files released by the Department of Justice last month.

“Mr. Rubenstein had one meeting for 20 minutes in Carlyle’s office, at the request of people seeking Mr. Rubenstein’s participation in philanthropic endeavors, none of which were pursued by Mr. Rubenstein,” a spokesperson for Rubenstein told Front Office Sports.

In the summer of 2012, Boris Nikolic sent an email to Rubenstein and Epstein introducing the pair. “David, I mentioned you last time that it would be great if you and Jeffrey Epstein meet,” Nikolic wrote. “Jeffrey is one of my dearest friends.”

Nikolic was Bill Gates’s science advisor and a key figure in Epstein’s orbit who was once listed as an executor of Epstein’s estate. “Epstein was a master manipulator, and I deeply regret associating with him,” Nikolic told The Wall Street Journal last week.

‘So no dinner this week?’

The meeting between Epstein and Rubenstein took place later that year, and Nikolic and Epstein regularly messaged about Rubenstein.

“Nice meeting you finally,” Epstein wrote on Nov. 12, 2012, before mentioning the date former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak would be in the United States.

“Enjoyed the chance to meet you as well,” Rubenstein wrote back that day. “I really like ehud and I am up to speed on what congress and wh are doing–though impact on the economy is still a bit of guess work.”

Two weeks later, Epstein emailed Rubenstein an article about Barak quitting politics, with the subject line “change in landscape.”

Rubenstein ignored the article and responded, “So no dinner this week?”

“A brief email thanking Mr. Rubenstein for the meeting also suggested a meeting between Mr. Rubenstein and Ehud Barak, which never occurred,” the Rubenstein spokesperson told FOS. “There is nothing more to Mr. Rubenstein’s involvement than that innocuous interaction.”

Rubenstein earned billions as the founder of the private-equity firm Carlyle Group and bought the Orioles in a deal that valued the team at $1.7 billion in 2024.

‘For David Rubenstein’

Epstein and Nikolic were discussing Rubenstein well before the pair met in 2012.

In 2011, Epstein emailed Nikolic saying “david rubenstein is going to see.” A few emails later, they were discussing donations to the Kennedy School at Harvard, and Epstein said that “he wants GLENN to give,” referring to longtime Epstein associate Glenn Dubin. In August 2012, Epstein asked Nikolic for advice about calling Rubenstein for a coffee; Nikolic told him to wait.

In July 2012, a “Sarah K” emailed Epstein a photo of a woman in a bathing suit; her face is redacted in the files. Epstein forwarded the email to Nikolic and said “for david rubenstein.” Nikolic simply responded “Thank you! HOT.” A spokesperson for Rubenstein said that he had never received or saw that email from Nikolic.

The email address for “Sarah K” is redacted, but a woman named Sarah Kellen was closely associated with Epstein. Kellen has been accused of helping Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell traffic women and girls, and the judge in Maxwell’s criminal case called her “a criminally responsible participant” in Epstein’s crimes.

ANOTHER FOS EXCLUSIVE

Netflix Sports Podcasts Getting Pirated on YouTube

Less than two months into Netflix’s push into exclusive sports podcasts, one of its newly acquired shows was pirated on YouTube and racked up more than 100,000 views before being taken down. For more on the early piracy challenges facing Netflix’s sports podcast strategy, read David Rumsey’s story here.

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STATUS REPORT

Three Up, One Push

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Seattle school attendance ⬆⬇ Despite the city hosting the Seahawks Super Bowl victory parade, Seattle public schools remained open Wednesday. That didn’t stop students and teachers from attending the celebration, with school absences exceeding typical numbers, being estimated at 12,697 for students and 663 for staff.

UEFA ⬆ Revenue for the men’s club competitions during the 2024–25 season, which includes Champions League, was $5.2 billion (€4.4 billion), up 15.7% from the previous year. Total revenue exceeded $5.9 billion (€5 billion), with UEFA reaching that mark for the first time in a non-men’s Euro year.

IndyCar ⬆ Chevrolet and Honda renewed their contracts to continue to serve as the original equipment manufacturers for IndyCar and the NTT IndyCar Series. IndyCar president J. Douglas Boles called the multiyear deal, which will commence in 2027, a “historic commitment from two of our best and most trusted partners.”

Rich Ruohonen ⬆ Olympic history was made Thursday, as Ruohonen became the oldest U.S. Winter Olympian. The 54-year-old from Minnesota, who off the ice works as a personal-injury attorney, is the alternate for Team USA’s men’s curling team and competed in the squad’s match against Switzerland.